Music Fiction 101

A vs. C — Solution 1

The Minor-based Cycle of Fifths

Solution 1: To move A to the top of the Cycle of 5ths, demote the major scales to secondary status ... move them inside the circle and move the minor scales outside. This brings A minor to the top! It’s by far the simplest solution. All major scales go inside the circle ... and we refer to them, as always, as the relative “major” scales.

Pros:

Music notation would read the same.

The key with no sharps of flats is A minor.

After centuries of longing for the throne, Richard III — I mean A — would surely prefer an intimate association with the melancholy sound of the minor key!

Cons:

If we make the "alpha scale" A minor, then we also need to rewrite all of music theory, because all the chord and scale formulas would change. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 would define the
minor scale, with half steps between 2 and 3 and between 5 and 6. The formula for major scales would be: 1, 2,#3, 4, 5, #6, #7. So it's not a perfect solution. Too much would have to change.
So let's look at Solution 2.